Last year on January 28th, the first annual Data Privacy Day celebration was held in the United States at Duke University. Today marks the second annual Data Privacy Day, and the celebration has grown dramatically.

Last year, Governor Easley proclaimed January 28th as Data Privacy Day for the state of North Carolina. This year, he proclaimed January Data Privacy Month. North Carolina, Washington, California, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Arizona have also declared January 28th to be state-wide Data Privacy Day. Last but certainly not least, Congressman David Price and Congressman Cliff Stearns introduced House Resolution 31 which was passed on January 26th with a vote of 402 to 0 to make today National Data Privacy Day in the United States. It is truly outstanding to see such strong support in the form of resolutions and proclamations.

The best way to support or celebrate Data Privacy Day is to take action. Since the goal of Data Privacy Day is to promote awareness and education about data privacy, one easy way to act is to check out all the great educational resources made available in conjunction with Data Privacy Day. For example, Google has posted about what it has done to protect privacy and increase awareness of privacy. Microsoft is holding an event tonight and has more information on data privacy on their website.

Here at The Privacy Place, we were once again pleased to have the opportunity to celebrate Data Privacy Day at Duke University by attending the panel discussion on Protecting National Security and Privacy. The panel discussion was extremely well-attended and well-received. This event had a number of sponsors, including Intel who has a fantastic website with extensive information on Data Privacy Day. If you weren’t able to make it to the panel, I would strongly encourage you to check out Intel’s site.

Lastly, Data Privacy Day is all about awareness and education, so be sure to spread the word!

[Update: Fixed the link to the House Resolution that passed on Monday.]